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Bruce.Lipsky@jacksonville.com Peter Hayes (left) is president and Jeff Brudos is chief operating officer of full core, the company whose namesake is an appetite control drink.

Three weeks ago, the beverage full core was available in about 35 stores. Today, it’s in more than 3,000.

Now, all the Jacksonville owners of the company have to do is make sure the train keeps rolling in a tough business, with thousands of new beverages coming out every year.

Full core, a carbonated drink with fiber, is sold as a natural appetite control.

Peter Hayes and Jeff Brudos launched the beverage at the beginning of 2012, then, from their small offices in Atlantic Beach, began to grow the product. It started out on the shelves of a few local health food stores. Then a few wellness and weight-loss clinics picked it up.

The first big bump came early this year when two small regional chains — Akins Natural Foods in the Midwest and Chamberlin’s in Central Florida — started carrying the drink.

But none of that compared to the news they received this month: GNC, the world’s largest retailer of vitamins and wellness products, decided to sell full core.

That means that a company with sales of about $100,000 last year is looking at $2 million to $3 million this year, said Hayes, the company’s president.

HANDLING GROWTH

With that welcomed growth comes inevitable complications, although because they’re not making the drink themselves, they’re not having to expand equipment. Full core is made in Memphis at Blues City Brewery, a former Schlitz brewery that now makes a variety of products for other brands, including beer and Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

But it’s not as easy as just making a phone call to Memphis for more product.

“It’s a phone call and a check for $150,000,” Hayes said.

And that’s out-of-pocket money.

Like in so many other business arrangements, GNC pays at the end of 60 days, while full core has to pay for its manufacturing upfront. There’s always the threat that if the product doesn’t sell, GNC doesn’t have to buy it.

“When you’re talking about the giants like Wal-Mart, Target or GNC, they’re king,” Hayes said. “So with Clorox or just full core, they can always send it back.”

Tom Pirko, managing director of BevMark, a food and beverage consulting firm, said that is one of the challenges.

“Just because they’ve taken it on the shelves doesn’t mean they’ll be able to sell it,” Pirko said. “Getting approval for even Wal-Mart, Kroger or 7-Eleven doesn’t mean you’ve struck it rich.”

Despite being made in a brewery, full core isn’t brewed, it’s simply mixed. But it still needs time on the production line. Hayes said he asks for a run to start on a certain date, which he may not get if Mike’s Hard Lemonade calls in with a bigger order at the same time.

“The battle is really David and Goliath,” Hayes said. “And there’s a little politicking involved. We’re the new guy on the block. But things have changed since we got GNC. I think they’re realizing we have a future.”

Meanwhile, it’s Brudos’ job to make sure that everything gets to Memphis in time for each batch: Cans from Chicago, flavors from New Jersey, vitamins and minerals from New York, fiber from Iowa.

COMPETING

Of GNC’s 4,500 stores, 3,044 are company owned and full core is in all of those. The other 1,500 or so are franchises, and the company can’t make them carry a particular product. But Hayes, the company’s president, said he’s starting to get a few orders from the independents.

Fortunately, they don’t have to arrange shipping to all those stores. Brudos, the chief operating officer, just has to get the product to three GNC distribution centers, which send them to the company-owned stores. Everything going to the other merchants is shipped from Memphis to a warehouse off Atlantic Boulevard, then shipped back out.

The two partners had business experience — Hayes in insurance and Brudos in accounting — when they started talking about developing the drink two years ago. They started off looking at the obesity crisis and went from there, eventually settling on a lightly carbonated drink with 10 grams of fiber.

“First you look at the competition,” Hayes said. “If Coke or Pepsi isn’t doing it, you might have a chance. To our surprise, there was nothing.”

But that doesn’t mean the big boys won’t get involved.

Pirko said he knows of a beverage company, which he declined to name, that’s done well. It’s in Costco and Wal-Mart with sales approaching $250 million a year.

“They’re still trembling because of Red and Blue,” he said in reference to Coke and Pepsi. “While they’ve done well, now they’ve hit the right size and Coke is launching a competitor.”

IT’S MONEY

Some of the keys to making it big are the obvious ones, Pirko said: Product, marketing, business plan, etc. But right at the top is the most obvious: Money.

“The game is fixed,” he said. “Distributors, wholesalers, all want you to pay them. And it’s your party, so it’s your responsibility. If you don’t have the money to pay the tab, it’s very difficult.”

He said that 90 percent of the beverage start-ups that come to his firm for help do not have enough money to have a chance.

Hayes and Brudos have financial backing of about $1 million, but that won’t be enough if the company continues to grow. They’re going to need a bank’s backing for that.

“Let’s say we get a new account every six months,” Brudos said. “Until those accounts mature enough to get back the seed capital, we’re going to have to be borrowing.”

Pirko said that companies can remain small and still make money.

“You can go along for a little bit and can actually build a business,” he said. “But most people go into with the idea of selling to a company like Coke and Pepsi. And maybe they’ll come, but it will be with all kinds of conditions.”

“You need to be funded, you need to have the right people. It only works when you have people who have been in the beverage business for a very long time,” he said. “It’s not a business for novices.”